History of payfair
Current status
payfair Processing Platform
In August 2008, payfair signed a system integration
contract with Unisys in order to build and deliver the
components required for the payfair operations in
the market.
The whole platform has been delivered end of April
2009. payfair transactions were tested successfully
in May 2009 while a first pilot was launched in
October 2009 at several Colruyt supermarkets
(Belgium).
The payfair platform is supporting acquiring
processing, switching and issuing processing.
While payfair is only anticipating market evolution
with central switch capabilities and issuing
processing services (to support non-bank issuers),
the acquiring function is mainly designed to enable
payfair to enter markets in case acquirers would not
be ready.
A pilot for the payfair@Internet module for
e-payments will start in the coming weeks on
several e-commerce websites, and other pilots
of e- and mobile payment solutions are in
preparation in several Central & eastern Europe
countries. A contactless solution will also be
available before year end.
In November 2010, the first new e-Luncheon
Voucher solution using the payfair acceptance
network was launched in the Belgian market.
“a revolution in digital
payments: one card for
every payment, loyalty
points, mobile phone,
and more”
PayFair Acquiring Licences
payfair is in negotiation to licence significant acquirers
within the SEPA zone. Once formalised, the list of
payfair acquirers will be displayed on the payfair site.
These initial acquirers are considered as "Founding
Partners" and are supporting the deployment of payfair
within the SEPA region.
PayFair Terminals
For Belgium, the Atos Worldline (ex Banksys) terminals
are being payfair upgraded and will be available
before end 2010. For terminals provided by other
acquirers (like CCV), this is also ongoing rapidly.
PayFair Accepting Merchants
Current efforts of payfair have been concentrated on
Belgium to replace the current non-SEPA domestic
brand Bancontact-MisterCash. In that context, all
retailers have signed a letter of intent for the
acceptance of payfair. Deployment timeframes have
been communicated end of June 2009 confirming the
feasibility to have payfair implemented in all terminals
by end 2010 should a bank start issuing payfair.
PayFair Issuing Institutions
Both Banks and non-banks are reviewing their plans in
the context of the SEPA implementation. Today, payfair
has an issuing pipeline of around 2.5 million cards.
Further commitments are expected to be made before
end of Q4 2010.
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